Any speculation as to who else may crop up as investigators in the Dreamlands?

Silas Marsh seems like a good candidate, but so far have they released a promo investigator to the general pool?

If, by promo, you mean one from the novellas? Yes.

Carolyn (whose surname escapes me) was in a novella before she was in TCU.

The investigators don't always have a connection to their cycle so really it could be anyone.

1 minute ago, Sindriss said:

The investigators don't always have a connection to their cycle so really it could be anyone.

Well, given Mandy has been previewed, I think we can rule Norman out, don't you?

One thing to bear in mind is that both of the upcoming investigators for whom we have deckbuilding information (Tony Morgan and Mandy Thompson) can choose between three other classes for their off-class. This doesn't necessarily mean that every investigator will follow that model (e.g. in Carcosa, 2 of the investigators had the then-new single class + cards with a specific trait from any class deckbuilding options, but the rest of them did not), but it might be the case (e.g. in Dunwich, every investigator followed the same deckbuilding theme of single class + 5 level 0 off-class).

If it is the case that every investigator in Dream Eaters will have this deckbuilding theme, we can safely rule out any of the promo investigators. It's speculation at this point, but so is everything and this at least has a basis.

Silas could be possible, and if so could indicate that the next cycle will be Cthulhu-themed, because you could see Carolyn Fern in TCU as a bit of a teaser for Dreamlands in the subsequent cycle. Having said that, the investigators with a really strong connection to a given theme have so far appeared in the relevant cycles - Minh with King in Yellow and Lola/Yorick being actors in Carcosa, Ursula the Explorer and Leo the Expedition Leader in TFA, Diana the Silver Twilight Cultist in TCU, Luke Robinson the Dreamer in Dreamlands. And Silas has the strongest connection to Innsmouth/Cthulhu of any investigator, so it would really make sense for him to be in the inevitable Cthulhu cycle.

Vincent Lee never seems to be far behind Carolyn, so maybe he's the Guardian of the group.

My guess is either Charlie or Gloria as the Survivor. Charlie because he has a thematic link to Mandy in the story and Gloria because she has visions and maybe they are connected to the Dreamland. Gloria's story is kinda vague. Those are my thematic guesses.

I agree they should hold onto Silas for an Innsmouth cycle. Though it would be nice to get his regular cards and see what they are like in play. I also think if we get him and Tony in this box then it's a pretty big hint that Innsmouth might be coming next.

I have no idea for the Guardian. My obvious guesses at the remaining Guardians are Tommy, Vincent, Lily and maybe Sister Mary. I'm kinda hoping for Sister Mary so we can have some Sister Mary, Father Mateo and Zoey adventures.

You are right about Carolyn Fern. I had forgotten she was already out there. I kind of figured that Norman would be off the table.

The class build being all the same, seems unlikely to me. With Tony and Mandy, all classes are already up for grabs as a secondaries. It would seem like overkill to me. But what do I know? But there are patterns. Ursula and Leo were kind of obvious leaders in Forgotten Age and both had built in allies, but that didn’t hold true for the rest of those investigators and all of them had different types of restrictions.

Could a 3 class investigator possibly be in our future? Maybe instead of the same stats across the board like Jenny, they’d have the same limits across the board. 3 classes, 10 cards each, 0-2 each?

TFA and Carcosa had a very thematic grouping of investigators. Mateo's story is all about confronting servants of Yig. Leo and Ursula are expedition leaders. Mark, Minh and Lola are all connected to the King In Yellow. TCU had both Preston and Diana linked to the Silver Twilight Lodge. In fairness Dunwich had really no thematic connection to it's investigators so it's hardly a rule.

Also getting an investigator in the cycle prior to their thematic link isn't that bad since usually a subset of the faction cards in that cycle support that investigator's design. You get to see all those cards when making a deck for them at the beginning of the next cycle. my decks for Preston now are very different than my decks for Preston at the beginning of TCU.

Innsmouth and R'lyeh has the most thematically connected investigators I think so it's wealthy with options for that box. Silas, Tony, Amanda and Trish at least all have some connection to that theme.

I'm sure there are more considerations than theme when picking the investigators in the box. Especially since they need at least one from each faction in there and some investigator designs might fit better mechanically in different cycles than the one with which they are thematically link.

My guess is Jacqueline as as Survivor/Mystic (though I really want Gloria).

Guardian guess would be Vincent or Lilly, but honestly, Lilly could be the survivor. Even though she is fantastic at fighting in most games, her abilities tend to be tied to health/sanity manipulation and she just does not strike me as a flame-thrower wielding gun-toting guardian.

(I am currently altering a custom character to have a build option of primary seeker, lvl 0-2 event/skill/assets from mystic/rogue/guardian with each type restricted to a unique class - not that we've seen this yet officially, but it's another similar but different option)

Survivor Lily doesn't sound bad to me. I'm kinda hoping Lily has a printed attack action on her investigator card so she can do +1 damage unarmed. That coupled with some deck building restriction clause like melee weapons only. I'm very interested to see Lily's deck.

Of note is that Ashcan's story is all about having dreams that come true. While it doesn't explicitly state he is a "Dreamer" in the Dreamland's traveler sense, I think it's interesting he is thematically connected to dreams. I'll probably consider doing an Ashcan run through of the campaign. Also Jessica Hyde looks great for him so that makes me eager as well I haven't played Ashcan in a while.

It is absolutely true in regards to building differently as you go. Add to that, building differently for different circumstances. I tried Carolyn at the beginning of TCU and just couldn’t get a good handle on her, so we started over. But she would be so different in Dreamlands and some cards seem tailor made for her. That being said, the thematic link isn’t always necessary for a good experience, Dunwich being the obvious example. And I ended up playing Norman in TCU and his deck build requirements worked amazingly as the campaign unfolded.

I would love to see a Survivor Sister Mary. And a guardian Lily maybe with weapon restrictions and some new tactic and event cards and a survivor secondary.

1 hour ago, dysartes said:

Well, given Mandy has been previewed, I think we can rule Norman out, don't you?

Not necessarily. We just got 2 Mystics in the last cycle. Their releases seem to be quite chaotic.

3 minutes ago, Sindriss said:

Not necessarily. We just got 2 Mystics in the last cycle. Their releases seem to be quite chaotic.

But I believe people have worked out the numbers and determined we're only getting 5 investigators this time.

It seems to go 5 investigators in one cycle and 6 in the next and back to 5 etc.

Yeah Zooeyglass has a rundown of all the spoiled card numbers and it seems pretty clear that it's 5 investigators only. While it's possible they could leave a faction out of the box, I think it's pretty unlikely.

I am guessing Daniela Reyes or Lily Chen. Other possibilities for guardian or survivor could be Hank Samson , Vincent Lee , Tommy Muldoon and Wilson Richards.

31 minutes ago, Sindriss said:

Not necessarily. We just got 2 Mystics in the last cycle. Their releases seem to be quite chaotic.

Yeah, but one of those two was a straight general release of Marie, who'd previous only been available with the Investigators of Arkham book - it wasn't like the alternative loadouts we see with the novella characters, so i tend to think she was put in there as a way to make her generally available given the book is OOP.

Well just to be clear (in case someone new to the game gets confused) the premium version of Investigators Of Arkham is out of print, which is the one that came with Marie. The regular retail version of that book is still available. Though that promo version of Marie is pretty much overcome by events now that she's had her retail release anyway. They should have have alt art for that promo IMO. I guess it was the first one they did for the LCG so they were still trying to figure out what works.

So do you think we could use Tony and Mandy with their flexible deck builds both in the dreamworld and the waking worlds? It’s written as possible separate campaigns.

i.e. Tony /guardian in the waking world and Tony /survivor in the Dreamlands? Just thinking outside the box here.

Gloria as a survivor is interesting, I never considered that for her (my bets were Seeker and Mystic). But now that we have these pseudo four-class investigators, I suppose she could be a Survivor with options on Mystic, Seeker and... uh, guardian, for healing? I'm not sure. But she's a great fit for the cycle thematically and so far, two of the investigators don't really have that much to do with the Dreamlands. She's an author and the story is about an author. She's an expert on other worlds, and that's where we're going. And she's a dreamer.

Yeah, I'm on board the Goldberg train.

Survivors have all sorts of 'luck' and cards like Alter Fate. Who better than to create their own luck than an author that isn't sure if she's writing the events of the mythos or if they're writing her?

To all be on the same page, we're missing the following 23 investigators:

• Agatha Crane - the Parapsychologist
• Amanda Sharpe - the Student
• Bob Jenkins - the Salesman
• Carson Sinclair - the Butler
• Charlie Kane - the Politician
• Daniela Reyes - the Mechanic
• Darrell Simmons - the Photographer
• Dexter Drake - the Magician
• George Barnaby - the Lawyer
• Gloria Goldberg - the Author
• Hank Samson - the Farmhand
• Harvey Walters - the Professor
• Jacqueline Fine - the Psychic
• Kate Winthrop - the Scientist
• Lily Chen - the Martial Artist
• Michael McGlen - the Gangster
• Monterey Jack - the Archeologist
• Patrice Hathaway - the Violinist
• Sister Mary - the Nun
• Tommy Muldoon - the Rookie Cop
• Trish Scarborough - the Spy
• Vincent Lee - the Doctor
• Wilson Richards - the Handyman

The following are confirmed:

• Luke Robinson - the Dreamer
• Mandy Thompson - the Researcher
• Tony Morgan - the Bounty Hunter

I am expecting Charlie to be neutral with some benefit based on the number of Allies (not investigators) at his location. I also expect Lily to debut with him, as they have appeared in the same expansion in Arkham 2e (Kingsport Horror), Elder Sign (Omens of Ice), Eldritch Horror (Core set), and Mansions 2e (Sanctum of Twilight). The only game they haven't appeared alongside each other is the new Final Hour, which breaks enough other rules to be discounted. I suspect Lily will get a static bonus so long as she has a free hand slot or is not using a Firearm.

Norman's novella is tied to Azathoth, to say nothing of the 5 investigator limit and the unlikeliness of doubling-up on class.

By the With-Whom-Did-They-Previously-Release scheme, they only 2 investigators to release in the same expansions as Luke across 2+ games are Lola & Daisy. (No dice.)

Mandy, on the other hand, is very sociable. She debuted with Amanda, Carolyn, & Darrell in AH2, ES, & MoM1. She also debuted with Joe, Monterey, & Sister Mary in AH2, ES, & EH. (The Core sets for AH2 & ES were the same 12 investigators.)

Joe was in the Core sets for AH2, ES, MoM1. (Half of the 'gators in the AH2 & ES core sets were in the MoM1 core sets. All of the others should up in the first and second expansions.) So, taking those as even means we'd have to look at those who came with EH as well, putting them at 4 shared arrivals. The list is Sister Mary & Harvey. Looking at it as though the whole of MoM1 & its expansions were the same instead, we would see Mandy & Monterey.

TL;DR: By this ridicules train of though, I shall put forth Sister Mary & Monterey Jack - themes be darned!

That would actually be a very easy way to handle Lily Chen. Gain +1 combat per free hand slot, max +2.

So far, we had 4 Intellect investigators for all classes except Survivor. It's even worse, appart from Wendy who has 3, they all have 2 (0 for Calvin).

I would love a 4 Intellect Survivor and I feel that Gloria Goldberg fill that spot nicely.